Everything Starts With A T - Vox, September 1994

"Basically, I've always preferred classic cut, simple stuff without any labels. But when we were forming the band, there was all the hype from Manchester, and the attitude was that truly working-class bands wore expensive labels, as though that was the only thing working-class people could aspire to. We reacted against that condescending view by taking tops and bastardising them with spray pain."

"Since then my attitude has veered towards being allergic to any designer labels. I suppose I was lumbered with a certain iconoclastic eroticism because my father gave me a really crap name. Even though I'm seen as quite Athena-like, quite tacky, I've tried to avoid it all my life. I've still found myself attracted to very obvious heroes, though. Like, I saw Rumblefish when I was 16, and Matt Dillon wore this V-neck, white T-shirt all the time. I mail-ordered ten from Japan after I saw it. It's an easy way to copy someone. You can't have the same body as them, you can't have the same bone structure, you can't get the same haircut, really, so you just wear something they wear. Trying to imitate screen lives is just a childish reaction to something you aspire to.

"I find the idea that you can buy style that adds up to rebellion contradictory. The scummy kid in your street would always have a really out-of-date Adidas T-shirt; now it's this rebel-chic, which is fine but they're attaching such large prices to it. I find it quite pathetic.